“We Got Next”—Next What?

Abstract

For its inaugural season the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) adopted the tag line “We Got Next.” This phrase, commonly heard on playground basketball courts around the country, would appear to be the perfect tag line for the new basketball league. However, anecdotal information suggested that many individuals, even those familiar with the WNBA, did not understand the meaning of “We Got Next.” We surveyed two groups, college students and women's basketball fans, to assess their recognition and understanding of the WNBA's tag line. Our findings indicated that the WNBA marketing campaign resulted in a relatively high recognition rate for the tag line, but that relatively few understood the meaning of “We Got Next.” Our study suggested that the WNBA may have improved the effectiveness of their campaign had they conducted preliminary marketing research to better understand their target audience. “We got next,” the phrase used by playground basketball players to claim the next pick-up game, would appear to be the perfect tag line for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), who in the summer of 1997 was moving on to the courts for its inaugural season just as the National Basketball Association (NBA) finished its playoffs. The WNBA proudly touted their theme in a press release (NBA Properties, 1997) stating that WNBA teams will use the “We Got Next” campaign in television, print, radio, and in-arena advertising and promotions. In addition, all 29 NBA teams would support the theme in arena events and in team television and radio broadcasts.

The “We Got Next” tag line was developed by an advertising agency in conjunction with the NBA/WNBA (NBA Properties, 1997). Three groups were identified as the primary target audience for the promotion: basketball fans, women interested in sports, and children. Although no preliminary research was conducted to forecast the effectiveness of the “We Got Next” theme, it was believed that members of the target audiences would easily grasp its relevance (David Dececco, Marketing and Communications—NBA/WNBA, personal communication, December 11, 1997).

Indeed, those who know the phrase quickly recognize its appropriateness as a promotion for the WNBA. This study was prompted by anecdotal information that suggested many individuals, even those familiar with the WNBA, did not understand the meaning of “We Got Next,” thus rendering the tag line less than fully effective. In fact, Courtside with Ann Meyerso n the WNBA World Wide Web site even raised and answered the question of what “We Got Next” stands for (Meyers, 1997).

There have been numerous models of how consumers respond to advertising (Olshavsky, 1994). Both traditional models (e.g., McGuire's hierarchy of advertising effects (McGuire, 1978) or Greenwald and Leavitt's four-stage model of ad processing (Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984)), and departures from traditional models (e.g., the elaboration likelihood model [ELM] Petty, Ca-cioppo, & Schumann, 1983) typically include comprehension, or determination of the meaning of the message, as an important component. The ELM model particularly emphasizes the depth and complexity of consumer processing of an ad. Information in an advertisement can be processed in several different ways ranging from relatively superficial, shallow processing to more effortful and lasting deep processing. A deeper level of processing would include attention to meaning (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). Considerable evidence has accumulated to suggest that the deeper the level of processing that takes place when we encounter new information, the more likely the information is to enter long-term memory and the better the recall of the stored information (Lockhart & Craik, 1990). The greatest depth of processing comes with semantic encoding, which is accomplished by thinking actively about the message and understanding its meaning. At deeper levels, consumers process ads by integrating the ad's content with their knowledge. Marketing research generally suggests that cognitive responses greatly contribute to the long-term effectiveness of an ad because such responses require enduring and personally relevant thought processes (Nelson, Shavitt, Schen-num, & Barkmeier, 1997). An advertisement's potential to impact consumer behavior is dependent on the consumer's being able both to identify the brand making the claim and its identifying tag line and to comprehend the message (Curlo & Chamblee, 1998). Preliminary research or field testing prior to launching a marketing campaign is often necessary to better understand the target audience and to ensure that the campaign will be fully comprehended and effective in communicating its message to the consumer (Burnett, Menon, & Smart, 1993; Huggins, 1992).

Our study represents an attempt to evaluate several aspects of the “We Got Next” marketing campaign. Specifically, the questions we address in this study are

Are people familiar with “We Got Next?”

Do they understand what it means?

Does the public now associate “We Got Next” with the WNBA?

To answer these questions we utilized two different samples, one composed of women's basketball fans and the other, a cross-section of college students. Subjects responded to a questionnaire that addressed recognition of the tag line, the respondent's ability to explain the tag line, and whether or not “We Got Next” was identified as the tag line of the WNBA.